Armless boy writes with his foot, goes to college

He lost his arms but not his smile

In 1997, Tu Huanjie was a first grader at Xi Dian Dong Hong Primary School in Ninghai County. One Sunday at the end of the first term, little Huanjie played in a factory with several classmates. A toy was thrown carelessly on an electrical transformer. Huanjie climbed up to retrieve the toy, but was electrocuted and fell unconscious on the spot. When he woke up, he was lying on a hospital bed. His mother cried and told him that he would lose his arms. After surgery, his arms had been amputated below the shoulder. The little boy was only 9 years old.

After leaving hospital, little Huanjie stayed home for half a year. The once naughty child had become quiet and reserved. As a result, 40-year-old Tu Shaolin consulted a doctor to see what he could do. The doctor told him that while a child’s spirit normally recovers quickly, his parents should take responsibility and should not always be negative. Instead, they should be optimistic.

When he went home, Tu Shaolin, a tractor driver, told his wife what the doctor said. They decided to put a smile on their own faces first. It was difficult to smile after such a misfortune, but for the sake of their son, Tu Shaolin, a normally reserved man, began to speak with his son.

Following the doctor’s advice, he told his son that, he could still eat, read and write without hands. Little Huanjie did not believe what his father said. How can somebody write without hands? His dad just laughed and said, use your feet, moving your toes is the same as using your fingers, it would not be a problem. Little Huanjie was convinced and tried to pick up a pen with his toes. In the beginning, he did not know how to use his strength. The pen always fell to the ground, and he had to pick it up with his feet.

Gradually, little Huanjie learned to hold the pen firmly. After that, he started practicing writing. With his left foot pressed firmly on the notebook, he held the pen with his right foot’s toes and tried to write. As toes are usually insensitive and one’s eyes are farther away from the feet, the characters he wrote were always shaky. His father jokingly asked little Huanjie why the characters he wrote looked like his father when he was drunk, staggering as he walked. The son said, that’s all right, one day they will all sober up.

Under his father’s light-hearted encouragement, little Huanjie gradually became cheerful. By winter, Huanjie was used to practice writing with his foot. After a while, he had no feeling in his feet because of the cold, and his back was sore from bending over. As the strength he exerted was uneven, the paper often tore and the pens broke. However, Huanjie would tilt his head to one side every day and practice writing for a few hours every day. He was so interested in practicing; Huanjie would not stop unless his father took his pen away from him. After half a year’s practice, Huanjie’s characters did not look drunk any more. In this happy atmosphere, Huanjie gradually became “self-dependent.”